Simple steps for easy pet business content marketing in 2013

Did January slip by before you created your pet marketing strategies to engage prospects with content, such as blog posts, news items, Facebook posts and so on? Well, it’s not too late!

You may be thinking, “Ugh. Something else I have to plan out.” But you can keep it easy with an editorial calendar that helps you schedule your content and avoid writer’s block. All you need to do is this:

1. Write down all the ideas you can think of, or brainstorm topics with your team, asking them: What do our customers want to know about our products and services? What problems do we help solve for our customers? What related topics do our customers care about?

2. Assign topics to specific dates: Use a wall calendar, electronic calendar, or even a spreadsheet

To map out your pet marketing content for 2013, use a blank calendar or spreadsheet to fill in the relevant topics.

including a logical topics list each month. This helps you keep track of your topics at a glance.

Let’s say you’d like to write about a new winter dog coat. Your prospects probably won’t be interested in a coat during the heat of summer. But you could note to write about it in early November. Maybe a rain slicker would be of interest for the active dog owner climbing rainy mountains in springtime. Jot “introduce dog rain gear product… good for mountain weather,” in March. Then there are the annual holidays. The day after Halloween is a good time to remind yourself to write about, “Great dog gift ideas for Christmas.”

The San Diego Humane society and SPCA hold an Annual Animal Valentine’s Adoption Event. If you do something similar, blog about how to prepare your home and family for the new pet adoptee prior to Valentine’s Day, and tie the solutions you have to their preparation needs.

There are other events like pet Olympics, animal wellness conferences, local pet fundraisers and more. With a little research and imagination, you can create great pet content all year long, guiding pet prospects back to your website and solutions.

3. Finally, add relevant keyword phrases your prospects are using in search engines, and be sure to include those keywords in your content.

Going back to the dog winter coat example — you’ve done your research on Google Web Master Tools or Bing’s Web Master Tools for keywords. You discover a phrase, how to keep whippet warm. You have the solution… a winter dog coat. So perhaps you write a blog post about certain dog breeds that need extra help to stay warm in the winter, and you include a phrase such as:

“Our unique thermal fabric can even keep a whippet warm in sub-freezing temperatures.”

See how it works? A relevant pet content marketing plan can engage your readers all year long… helping you come out on top.